The Packard plant's south water tower stands above the crumbling complex in November 2010, only a few months before it, too, was brought down by scrappers. / Detroit Free Press

Even as a Texas bidder won Friday's auction for the Packard Plant, a fire broke out at the plant. / Ann Zaniewski/Detroit Free Press

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An online auction for Detroit’s iconic Packard plant ended Friday with a ferocious bidding war and mystery winner from Texas who Wayne County officials say offered more than $6 million for the crumbling lot.

The county treasurer’s office identified the winner as Jill Van Horn of Ennis, Texas, a family practice doctor whose bid of $6,038,000 closed the property’s tax foreclosure auction at about 5:20 p.m. After opening at a mere $21,000 on Oct. 8, the high bid jumped from $601,000 to $5.5 million in the final hour, eventually creeping up to just above $6 million.

David Szymanski, chief deputy treasurer, said that as of early Friday night, officials had yet to speak with Van Horn or confirm whether she has the money to back her bid. He said she has until Monday afternoon to make good but that there could be some leeway. Prospective buyers needed to place a deposit of $5,035 to bid.

“We can’t be certain that she is the purchaser. It could be an agent for a purchaser,” Szymanski said. “But that’s the information we have. ...We will likely not see the money until Monday at the earliest.”

The county did not disclose the names of the other bidders or the exact amount of their highest bids.

The auction extended after the 4:45 p.m. deadline on Friday in five-minute increments as participants upped their bids by sums of $1,000 to $4,000. It finally ended at about 5:20 p.m. after more than 110 bids. The Packard plant was one of the final three parcels.

It remained unclear Friday what Van Horn has planned for the site, which has become an internationally recognized symbol of Detroit’s decline.

The Free Press could not reach her but did exchange a text message with someone at the number listed for her husband, George Van Horn. He confirmed that the couple bid on the property. Though he did not respond to other texts seeking further details, he did reply late Friday: “We will put out a statement Monday. It’s not a mistake.” George Van Horn owns a classic car auto body repair and paint company, according to his website.

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The couple has not been in the news in previous years, and they are not listed on any corporate boards, according to the Free Press research.

If Van Horn can’t produce the $6 million, the Packard plant would pass to the next-highest bidder, Szymanski said.

That might be Fernando Palazuelo, a developer from Lima, Peru, who has experience in several high-profile redevelopment projects in that country. Palazuelo told the Free Press on Friday that he stopped bidding at about $2 million. At least one other bidder was also involved in the high stakes last hours of the auction, Szymanski said.

“So we anticipate we will have somebody perform at around $2 million, in a worst-case scenario,” Szymanski said.

Chicago-area developer Williams Hults had a tentative deal last month to purchase the 110-year-old structure and land, but failed to come up with the then-price tag of $1 million cash that represented the back taxes.

No one bid the minimum $1 million in the first round in September of the online county auction, hoping they could snatch the property for far less in the second round when the reserve price dropped to $21,000.

The new owner won’t have to pay the property’s $1 million in back taxes, although the person would face an annual tax bill that tops $100,000. But that tax assessment can be appealed.

The purchaser would also pick up the liability of a rotting industrial hulk that regularly catches fire and is overrun by scrappers, curiosity-seekers, stray animals and urban spelunkers. Friday was no different, with the plant reportedly on fire for part of the day.

Opened in 1903, the Albert Kahn-designed Packard factory stopped making vehicles in the mid-1950s. It lost most of its remaining small tenants in the late 1990s.